


What Really Matters

by a_dangerous_sociopath



Category: Alice Cooper (Musician) - Fandom
Genre: Friendship, Gen, general sappiness, mentions of past abuse/rape, this is the "everything is okay now and we are going to heal together" fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-28
Updated: 2013-02-28
Packaged: 2017-12-03 21:50:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/703004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_dangerous_sociopath/pseuds/a_dangerous_sociopath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt Fill: Your character loses and/or misplaces something incredibly important to them.  What methods do they use to go about finding it?  Do they suspect someone of taking it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Really Matters

_Your character loses and/or misplaces something incredibly important to them.  What methods do they use to go about finding it?  Do they suspect someone of taking it?_  
  
Once, when Mike was on tour, an old air force vet pulled him aside and asked to give him something. It was an old denim jacket, worn in some places, and had been obviously been stitched together by hand in others. On the back, there was embroidered a large, growling rat, cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and underneath him were the words "Radar Rat," along with his unit's number.  
  
Mike tried to refuse, because it was very obvious that this was very important to the man, but he'd insisted that he really wanted to see him wear it on stage. Mike didn't want to refuse a veteran who'd seen action, so he agreed, and took the jacket.

  
It very soon became one of his favorite accessories, stitching it himself when he needed to, and wearing it almost everywhere. It did get him a lot of flak, mostly from his girlfriend, who thought it was old and ratty and begged (or demanded) him to throw it out. But he loved it, and he treated it with care.  
  
Then one day, right before he and Colleen were supposed to head out to meet Alice at a local diner, it disappeared. He searched the hotel room up and down for it, but it just seemed to be gone. Colleen was starting to get impatient with him, and he decided to just buy another jacket in the shop next door, so they wouldn't be too much later meeting up with Alice.  
  
When they got there, Alice was nowhere to be found. Colleen and Mike waited for him, thinking he'd gone to check out one of the shops, and he'd return soon. But when he didn't, they began to worry. They checked with the owner of the diner, who confirmed that Alice had been there, but had already left some time ago. They made the decision to leave, and went out to the parking lot, intending to go back to the hotel room and call it a night. That was when Colleen spotted Alice's keys on the sidewalk, and not too far away, his car, apparently abandoned.  
  
That was when Mike called the police.  
  
With all the frantic energy surrounding the next few days, Mike forgot about the jacket entirely. Between the media frenzy and the desperate search to find Alice, he had more than enough to keep him busy. Rock stars, especially high-profile ones like Alice, generally don't just disappear. And, according to the police, who were infuriatingly blasé about the whole thing, insisted that while celebrities generally don't disappear, people do. Regular people often do disappear, especially in this town, where the terrain and the forest were so dense that the locals generally paid these disappearances no mind. Why should they? Dumb tourists, who aren't familiar with the place, were always getting lost, never to be found again.  
  
Alice was just another dumb tourist to them.  
  
After two weeks with no clue as to what happened, Mike and Colleen were once again the only two people in the town still looking for Alice. Granted, there wasn't too much they could do; hiking through the woods on their own seemed rather unwise, lest they get lost themselves. They spent most of their time putting up fliers, and talking to as many people as they could.  
  
They uncovered no real clues, no real witnesses. Alice was just gone. There didn't seem to be anything they could do.  
  
A few more days pass. Mike is given a rather firm order by the local police; come and pick up Alice's car, or it'll be towed to the junkyard. To Mike, the real message was perfectly clear: Alice is dead. There's no point in looking into this case anymore. There's no point in holding onto this evidence. It won't save him now. Mike was infuriated. But, he reasoned, that one of Alice's relatives might be interested in holding onto his belongings, so he decided he and Colleen should leave that town for now, and return Alice's things to his family. It was the least they could do.  
  
As he and Colleen were packing in Alice's things into the trunk, Mike is stopped short by a hand, gently grasping his jacket.  
  
His nerves frayed to their very limits, Mike wheels around to loudly confront this person, and is caught short to see Alice flinch away from him.  
  
Alice looks like death, and that's the nicest way he can put it. The man looks as frail and thin as Mike's ever seen him, covered in dirt and blood. He's absolutely covered in bruises, and when Mike grabs his wrist Alice silently recoils, as though the other man's touch hurt him. Alice doesn't really respond to any of Mike's questions, either, seeming lethargic and confused.  
  
Colleen gives Alice a quick once-over, and spots what she thinks could possibly be a serious injury, which would, according to her, explain some of Alice's lethargy. He needed to be at a hospital, and soon.  
  
Mike puts Alice in front of him on his motorcycle and speeds to the nearest emergency room, with Colleen following in her car. It takes all of his concentration not to crash, driving precariously, with one arm around Alice so he doesn't fall. It throws his balance off completely, trying to get there quick, but having to go slow because Alice is certainly not helping him out on this trip.   
  
Once in the emergency room, Alice is immediately taken into the back, yanked out of Mike's hold and placed on a gurney. Mike tries to follow, but is ordered to remain in the waiting room. He's not family, after all. Eventually, Colleen joins him, and they wait there together, watching as doctors and nurses frantically run about. The police come, are taken into see Alice, and are led out once more. They pull Mike and Colleen out of the emergency room at one point, separately, to get their version of the events. To Mike it was all too surreal. Just a few hours ago he'd basically been told that Alice was dead. Now here he was, apparently alive! If Alice ever does manage to walk out of this hospital, Mike might just kill him.  
  
Until, that is, Mike happens to catch part of a conversation between two cops and a detective. He can only hear every other word, but "kidnapped" and "assault" are the ones that grab his attention the quickest.  
  
After a while, Mike and Colleen are allowed into the room. If anything, Alice looks better already, his cheeks beginning to show color again. Draped in a thin sheet and a standard patient gown, he no longer has that lethargic, almost confused look about him, and Mike figures that has something to do with the I.V. drip they have him on, and whatever medication is inside. His head is wrapped, and his wrist, where Mike had grabbed him earlier, is set in a cast.   
  
Colleen, who'd never gotten along with Alice before, is surprisingly gentle with him. She steps into the room, silently taking his hand. She seemed just as lost for words to say as Mike felt. Mike steps a little bit further into the room, pausing when he notices some of the clothes Alice had been wearing when Mike first brought him in. They're carefully folded, and on top is the old denim jacket Mike had almost completely forgotten about.

  
He picks up the jacket, shaking out the dirt as he looks it over. There's new damage on it, scuff marks and places where the fabric had torn. He runs his hand over the image on the back, finding that that at least looks alright.  
  
Alice makes a coughing noise with his throat, trying to get Mike's attention.

  
"I'm sorry Mike." Alice says, his voice strained. "Sorry I took your jacket. I thought I was being funny. I was going to give it back at the diner."   
  
"I didn't realize how long I'd be away. Ended up needing it more than I thought I would." He says, his voice starting to get quieter. "They won't let me keep the rest of my clothes, but I told them they have to leave that. I know what it means to you."

  
Mike winces at that last part, feeling somewhat sick. He turns back to Alice, approaching the bed.  
  
"You can keep it a while longer." Mike tells him, placing the jacket over Alice's lap. 

  
Alice glances down to the jacket at first, makes a noise as though he's about to refuse. Mike puts his hand out to stop him. "I insist."  
  
Alice hesitates about a minute longer, before reaching out for the jacket again. He gently runs his fingers over the rat on the back, finally picking it up and moving to put it on. He needs a little help to get it on, struggling with aching muscles and broken bones. They get it up on one shoulder, and let it drape freely over the other, choosing not to fight with the broken wrist. Alice immediately seems more comfortable, rather than sitting there in a cold, partially open patient gown.  
  
Mike and Colleen stay, and by the end of their visit Alice is smiling, and even joking with Mike, and bickering softly with Colleen. By the end of the evening a nurse comes in to hustle Mike and Colleen out, it being after visiting hours and all. Alice seems disappointed, and even asks the nurse to let them stay, but she isn't having any of it. Hospital policy doesn't bend for anyone, celebrity or not.   
  
The last image Mike gets that night is of Alice curling up on the bed, the jacket tucked around him tightly.  
  
On their way to the parking lot, Colleen throws her arms around Mike's neck, gives her boyfriend a smirk and kisses his chin.  
  
"I can't believe you actually had it in you to part with that thing." She says, chuckling. "Especially after it's been missing for so long. Aren't you having withdrawals?"  
  
Mike simply shrugs. "The jacket's replaceable. I missed my best friend more."

**Author's Note:**

> So, I was doing a writer's block meme on dA, and one of my OC's landed on this prompt. I kind of already had a similar idea, but landing on this prompt inspired me to write it out.
> 
> One of these days I'll write out profiles for my OC's. The only reason I have OC's for my Alice Cooper fics is because writing about people he knows in real life makes me extraordinarily uncomfortable. Therefore; OC's . OC's everywhere.
> 
> That means Mike and Colleen are mine, and I try to groom the hell out of them to make sure they never become Mary-Sueish. (And it must be working, since my friends like to borrow them on occasion cough)
> 
> And for further clarity on this fic, Alice was kidnapped by Jason Voorhees, but if you've been following my writing you probably already had that figured out. ¯\\(°_o)/¯


End file.
